Page 7 - In Command Volume 18 - Ohio Fire Chiefs Association

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and experts to share their perspectives. For example, the finance director gave a presentation on her area of expertise; the city manager came and spoke about his working relationship and expectations
of a Fire Chief; even our labor attorney came and spoke at length about labor relations, negotiations, and grievances. This gave participants the opportunity to speak one-on-one with people I regularly interacted with outside of the fire department. In turn, other depart- ment heads had an opportunity to get to know who might be the next Fire Chief. If questions arose between the monthly sessions, participants were encouraged
to contact other presenters and speak to them outside of the sessions. Sometimes these conversations were later presented
to the group for further discussion.
In addition, participants were invited
to attend budget hearings with city council members in the spring and
fall. This process was less formal than a council meeting, and provided them a grassroots view of how the city handles its finances, not only for the fire divi- sion, but citywide.
It’s now been over two years since I retired. To be fair to those of you who chose to read this article, I went back and spoke with some of the participants in this training to get some feedback on whether it was successful. Overall, those I spoke to found it to be beneficial. I should note that one participant is still a Deputy Chief, one was promoted to Deputy Chief, and one was given my
old job as Fire Chief. Their comments included that they wished I had started sooner than 12 months prior to my retirement, and that additional sessions covering material such as fire prevention would have been beneficial. Now that they have settled into their positions, they are considering re-starting the program on a quarterly basis so that personnel interested in an administrative position have some training to help them succeed.
I feel pretty comfortable with the process I used to transfer knowledge to others in the department. It may not be for everybody, but I hope someone out there finds this information useful. u
APRIL/MAY/JUNE 2017 • www.ohiofirechiefs.org InCommand 7